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ID: 156932

Not completely blind: what dictators do to improve their reading of the world / Zimskind, Sarah; Honing, Arthur

Zimskind, Sarah	Journal Article
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Current literature holds that authoritarian regimes tend to misread the international environment, both because of information processing problems and the relative lack of incentives to learn. We argue that many dictators do learn over time how to better read the international environment. While there are certain qualities that autocracies cannot correct, they do often recognize other problems and take steps to address them (if it is not too politically risky). We identify the main steps dictators take to improve the quality of their debate in the inner circle and their understanding of the West, and shed light on the degree to which these steps actually help.

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Current Literature

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ID: 153165

Spy machine and the ballot box: examining democracy’s intelligence advantage / Zimskind, Sarah; Honig, Arthur

Zimskind, Sarah	Journal Article
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In International Relations literature, much attention has been given to how a regime affects battlefield effectiveness and strategic decisionmaking. These efforts seek to explain statistical findings that democracies have won most of the wars in which they were engaged. Those called “triumphalists” argue that democracies have better strategists and war-fighting machines.1 Dan Reiter and Allan C. Stam, Democracies at War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002). [Crossref], [Google Scholar] Their critics are “realists” who hold that regime type does not matter.

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Ballot Box ; Spy Machine ; Examining Democracy ; Intelligence Advantage

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